The DOJ may be preparing to investigate Google, burning blu-ray discs, the state of AI automation vs. human jobs, the right internet speed for streaming video, has my Google Home Hub been hacked? Internet for rural areas, backing up photos from a phone, is a Chromebook secure? And more of your calls!

Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Mike watches YouTube off his laptop and he keeps getting popups requiring him to log into his Google account to watch videos. What gives? Leo says that Google is starting to get restrictive on some content, and it may be that you have to log into YouTube in order to view sensitive or explicit videos. That doesn't mean anything other than topics that aren't advertiser-friendly. Leo also says it enables Google to collect data on you, so they can monetize it. Get ready, that's the future.

Howard has a computer with a Blu-Ray burner, but he doesn't have software to use it. What apps are available? Leo says that NERO was the gold standard for burning DVDs for years, but they may not do Blu-ray. Leo says that Premiere Elements 2018 and later can burn to Blu-Ray directly. So you don't really need a third party app. Leo also likes ROXIO. But you may end up with a special driver that can cause compatibility issues. Stick with Adobe Premiere Elements. Leo also likes FoxIt.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Doug bought a Tracfone LG Rebel 3 mobile phones. But the problem is, he can't get a phone number for it because Verizon doesn't support 4G anymore, only LTE. Whats the difference? Leo says that LTE is a bit faster, but it's odd that Verizon doesn't support it anymore. But they may have just killed 4G. Leo says to pull the SIM and try another carrier to see if it's not carrier locked. If it isn't, then go to Straight Talk.

Frank's grandkids are coming over for Father's Day and he's worried that his internet is too slow. What does he need for on-demand streaming? Leo says that Netflix has a standard of 25MB down. But Leo says its best to have twice that.

Frank also has an old computer with all his personal data on it. He doesn't trust the cloud, but he wants to get a new computer. Leo says that in most cases, the cloud is more secure than the laptop. That's why Leo recommends Chromebooks. They're secure, they're pretty fast, but everything is kept in the cloud. You can even do online banking with MINT. The other option is your iPad. And Leo recommends maintaining a strong, long password. And make sure you turn on 2-factor authentication. Then your safer in the cloud than you are at home.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Joseph says that AI can more accurately predict things than humans, so why should we trust things like political decisions, medical decisions, and even financial trading to anything but AI? Leo says that we're not there yet. But in the not too distant future, that may be the case. Look at self-driving cars: they have come a long way and someday, cars will be completely automated. But when that happens, millions of drivers will be out of work. Now multiply that by brokers, lawyers, doctors, etc.

Leo recommends the book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. In the book, AI still needs to be given a goal, and only humans can give it that. And in medicine, AI can't give you the bedside manner that humans need, the emotional care. What is the role of Humans and AI? That's going to evolve, but even perfect AIs aren't going to take over completely. And we're not even there yet.

Pat has a google home hub and she thinks it's been hacked. What can she do? Leo says that it's likely that someone has hacked Pat's Google account. Leo recommends changing her password and turning on 2-factor authentication. Add an account recovery number and email as well. That will keep someone from changing your password. Leo also recommends turning off "share your device" in the settings and set up Voice Match.

John is moving to a rural area of Pennsylvania, and the only internet available is via satellite. What are his options? Leo recommends first visiting BroadbandReports.com and see if there are any wireless ISPs there. If so, that's certainly going to be a better option than Satellite. But if you have to have a satellite, then the best option is Exede by Wild Blue. It's not cheap and you certainly won't be streaming with it.

David takes a lot of pictures with his smartphone and he is having issues transferring his pictures to his computer. He plugs in the iPhone to his Windows PC and drags and drops. But it stops. Leo says that Windows is awful doing that. It's not fault tolerant and it can time out really easily. Microsoft has a command line option called ROBO COPY that'll handle it without error. But in the long run, that's a difficult way to do it. Leo recommends using Google Photos. And the photos are just as good. But if you want the exact copy pixel for pixel, you'll have to pay for any storage beyond 5GB. And if you're an Amazon Prime customer, you have free storage.

Veronica wants to know if her Chromebook works on a home network. Leo says if you have internet access, you will. Are they secure? Leo says absolutely. The thing is, a Chromebook uses ChromeOS, which uses a browser-based interface. This makes it far more secure. And if it does get infected you can simply use the "power wash" feature to start over. But it stores all your data in the cloud, which is far more secure than a hard drive on your laptop.

This Week in Tech News

Fans are upset that actor John Krazinski has sold his YouTube web series Some Good News to CBS after a furious bidding war. Why are they upset? Because Krazinski isn't going to be continuing as the anchor of the popular youtube series. Many fans are now complaining that Krazinski has sold out. But Leo says that Krazinski is a TV and Movie star, and director, with a lot of other commitments on the horizon. But will SGN thrive without him? Leo isn't so sure.

Moving towards a more autonomous computer-oriented news curation, Microsoft this week laid off all their editors and writers for Microsoft News. Leo says that the news site isn't going away, Microsoft is just going to rely on an artificial intelligence algorithm to curate the stories it posts. Leo also adds that both Apple and Google have gone the other way, believing that human curation increases engagement. Leo also says that Facebook is also relying on an algorithm, and its news page is just terrible.

Leo says that while algorithms are good for optimizing your end result, they can get more extreme and just plain weird.

After a rain delay on Wednesday, SpaceX is poised to launch its first manned mission to the International Space Station with DM-2. Leo says that while critics say that money shouldn't be "wasted" on space exploration, Leo disagrees, saying that a tiny fraction of the federal budget goes to NASA and the Commercial Space Program, and the benefits of what we learn far outweigh what we spend, or the risk. And it always has.

Twitter announced this week that their employees can work from home and don't ever have to come back to the office. Leo says that this could be a new emerging trend, where companies allow ther employees to telecommute. The result could also be that people will be able to live where they can afford, rather than living in expensive areas. But it may also mean that companies will pay their employees less if they live in cheaper areas. But companies are also battling for the best talent, by offering amenities. Working from home will be part of that.